National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections (EZI)

There are large gaps in vaccine equity and access in Merseyside and despite numerous smaller projects these gaps are widening post pandemic with Merseyside now a national outlier in vaccine equity, undermining pandemic preparedness. This project aims to develop our understanding of how community-led approaches can help tackle mis and disinformation in the context of pandemic preparedness. Candidates will be hosted in the ReCITe project https://www.lstmed.ac.uk/recite. RECITE is a community health equity project that works through the integration of creative methods and community teams to address health equity issues. Mistrust of health systems and misinformation can contribute to unequal uptake of preventive care. The project will work with community and health partners to establish a framework and methodology for measuring and tackling misinformation which may impact pandemic preparedness in a national and local context. It will identify health challenges related to misinformation that contribute to unfair health outcomes in the community and co-develop creative interventions to address these challenges. We aim to develop new methods to evidence the measurable impact of these interventions on community health outcomes, trust, and misinformation resilience using participatory methods that include community voices in the research and its decision making.

We are looking for a candidate wishing to develop and evaluate interventions at the community level who has an existing background in psychology or a health field and experienced in qualitative, quantitative and/or mixed methods to masters level.

This PhD is a collaboration between the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool John Moores University, University of Bristol, and the UK Health Security Agency. In addition to the benefits associated with the HPRU, the PhD position will be based within the Institute of Resilient Health Systems, in the Departments of International Public Health and Clinical Sciences at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Supervisors for the project include Profs Miriam Taegtmeyer (LSTM) and Prof Cathy Montgomery (LJMU) and Dr Lois Murray (UKHSA).

The exact focus of this PhD will be agreed with the successful applicant based on their own background, and research interests. This is a brief summary.

This studentship is funded by the NIHR HPRU EZI-3 project.

The studentship includes:

• Stipend set at the UKRI Minimum Doctoral Stipend rate. For 25/26 this is £20,780 per annum.
• Tuition/programme fees at the ‘Home’ rate
• Contribution to research support fees for; lab consumables, travel, computing hardware, publications.

The duration of the funding package is 3 years.

There is no additional funding available to support travel to the UK or with costs associated with a UK Visa application.

Academic

• Applicants must hold at least a first class or high upper second-class Honours degree, or a degree of comparable standard awarded from outside the UK.
• A Masters degree (at merit or distinction preferable) is also a pre-requisite.
• Where an applicant does not meet the Honours degree requirement (e.g. they hold a lower second-class Honours degree), they may be eligible to apply if they also hold a Master’s degree with an awarded distinction in an area relevant to the MRC DTP. To be considered for this exemption, the qualification must be awarded at time of application and candidates must provide an award certificate and transcript for both qualifications. Unfortunately, we are unable to consider Master’s qualifications that have not yet been awarded for this purpose.

Residence

Candidates of all nationalities are eligible to apply to this studentship and we encourage applicants that are nationals of Low-Middle-Income Country

This is an exciting opportunity to work with a world leading team delivering research that is relevant to public health in the UK. This PhD opportunity is funded by the National Institute for Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections (EZI). The successful candidate will therefore join the NIHR HPRU-EZI.

NIHR is the UK's largest funder of health and care research and provides the people, facilities and technology that enables research to thrive.

NIHR HPRUs undertake high quality research that enhances the ability of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to protect the public’s health and minimise the health impact of emergencies. There are 13 HPRUs across England.

The HPRU-EZI is a partnership between the University of Liverpool, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), University of Oxford, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and UKHSA, in collaboration with University of Glasgow. HPRU-EZI has been running since 2014, and supports and strengthens UKHSA in its role protecting England from emerging infections and zoonoses (i.e. those which spread from animals to humans). HPRU-EZI has played significant roles in the past in the UK response to Ebola, Zika, COVID-19 and mpox. We will continue to address the major emerging threats; these are transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks (e.g. dengue and Lyme), the respiratory route (e.g. COVID-19 and influenza), or directly through contact (e.g. Lassa fever).

For further details please see our brochure and our website:
http://hpruezi.nihr.ac.uk/media/artlflhc/hpru-ezi-brochure.pdf
http://hpruezi.nihr.ac.uk

The overarching aims of this programme are to:

• Conduct the highest quality research to help UKHSA protect us from emerging infections.
• Engage and involve patients and the public, especially marginalised communities, to address health inequalities.
• Train the next generation of researchers to address emerging infections.
• Collaborate widely to ensure the maximum value and highest impact of our work, saving lives and livelihoods.

We will achieve our objectives through five research themes:

• Predict and Prevent
• Clinical Characterisation
• Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions
• Medical Countermeasures
• Data, Modelling and Artificial Intelligence

The impact of our work will be to significantly increase the UKHSA's ability to tackle current and future threats, thus informing policy, enhancing decision making, strengthening services and facilitating responses.

Academic Career Development Program

All HPRU-funded PhD students are part of the NIHR academy, which gives access to a wide range of excellent career development opportunities (https://www.nihr.ac.uk/career-development/nihr-academy). The HPRU-EZI runs a bespoke academic career development program, which HPRU PhD students are expected to engage in. This program comprises a variety of training, development and mentorship opportunities beyond the individual research group in which the PhD student is based. All HPRU students will have co-supervision from UKHSA and at least one higher education institution. Attendance at the career development events is covered by HPRU career development funding and does not come from the individual PhD project funds. Attendance at these events is expected of HPRU PhD students.

Patient and Public Involvement, Engagement, and Participation (PPIEP) will be an integral element of this PhD project. The project will have an allocated PPIEP budget. The PhD student will be expected to develop and lead PPIEP activities throughout the PhD timeline, and will be supported by the PPIEP leads and public contributors on the PPIEP working group. More information on this area can be found at: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/ppi-patient-and-public-involvement-resources-applicants-nihr-research-programmes

People from diverse backgrounds have historically been under-represented in the health and social care research talent pipeline. We are committed to addressing under-representation in research training awards and encourage applications from diverse groups. Dedicated mentoring can be arranged with a focus on supporting people from underrepresented groups under the career development programme (identifying mentors, career progression support etc. outside of thesis supervision).

Stage 1 – Complete the following online form

Candidates are eligible to apply from Thursday 24th June 2025

In order to be considered for this opportunity, candidates must:

1. Submit a copy of their Curriculum Vitae to iicon@lstmed.ac.uk
2. Complete the following form: https://forms.office.com/e/aKD1MrGSi4

This application form will ask you to:

• Provide your personal details
• Answer 7 questions (up to 1250 characters [approx 250 words] per question)
• Detail your qualifications, any relevant research experience and your English language proficiency
• List any contextual information that you feel is important for assessors to know (optional)
• Provide diversity monitoring information

Deadline for Stage 1 Application is noon UK time Thursday 14th August. Applications are only considered complete if LSTM has received a copy of your Curriculum Vitae and a completed form.

Successful Candidates

Candidates that are successful during Stage 1 will be notified by Friday 22nd August.

You will then be invited to interview scheduled for early September and will be required to submit documents to evidence that the information provided in Stage 1 is accurate prior to interview.